portraits in four; part three

i have found that the best way for me to practice my photography is to experiment as much as possible. this means getting friends and family involved. after a comfy dinner party on a warm late summer night, we took over a back yard and set up some strobes and umbrellas. the photos that were produced from the first have of the shoot were pretty straight forward and rather plain. as my models were getting bored i decided that i would heed the advice of one of my mentors.

“when a subject starts to become mundane or boring, leave your lights where they are and move yourself to a side of the subject that you haven’t been photographing. hopefully when you’re there, you’ll find an angle or a view that will be exciting enough to keep the shoot going and will keep you (as the photographer) interested. once you loose your interest, your models will as well.”

so i walked around the other side of my models and discovered an entirely different perspective. suddenly the backyard, which was earlier being lit up by the strobes, disappeared to black and the hard lines of backlighting began to shape the photos. as the models turned their backs to the flashing lights, umbrellas, and soft boxes, their demeanor lightened and they relaxed. everyone had a blast and the photos that resulted from a change in perspective were the ones that i love the most. it’s all about putting the subjects into the right perspective.

to give you an idea of where the lights were set up, here is a wider shot.

the music: i am a huge fan of local chicago musician andrew bird but i feel like his new record is a little too “out there” for pop audiences to grasp. his last record was filled with uplifting pop gems that were disguised as intricate indie chamber pop. the record brought bird to edge of a national breakthrough. in contrast, the new record is so very esoteric in it’s music and in it’s lyrics. this makes it hard to understand at times as musical genre experimentation, lengthy words, and (for lack of a better word) noodling leave the listener wanting a standard song structure and for andrew to put the thesaurus down. cluttered is what i would call it. i like it. in fact i like it a lot. but i don’t think a lot of the record buying public will. Fitz & Dizzyspells is probably the best traditional single from the record. it’s really good. there’s a video for it, found here.